Harry J. Sonneborn (June 12, 1916 – September 21, 1992) was an American businessman, best known for being the first president and chief executive of

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

Corporation.

Life and career

Sonneborn was born in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, the son of Minnie (Greenbaum) and Mark Harry Joseph. He was adopted and raised by his paternal aunt, Jeanette (Joseph), and her husband, Louis Sonneborn, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. His family was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Work with McDonald's

A former vice president of finances at

Tastee-Freez Tastee-Freez is an American franchised fast-food restaurant specializing in soft serve ice cream. Its corporate headquarters is in Newport Beach, California, and it has stores in seven states, with two stores located in Illinois. The first Tast ...

, Sonneborn approached

Ray Kroc Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turnin ...

with the concept of Kroc owning the land that McDonald outlets were to be built on and then leasing that land to the franchisee. This business model led to the explosive growth of McDonald's; the real estate deals were handled through a specially formed corporation named McDonald's Franchise Realty Corp. The "Sonneborn model" persists to this day within the corporation, and might have been the most important financial decision in the company's history. McDonald's present-day real estate holdings represent $37.7Bn on its balance sheet, about 99% of the company's assets and about 35% of its global revenue. Kroc appointed Sonneborn as McDonald's first president and chief executive officer in 1959, which he held until he resigned in 1967, due to falling out with Kroc. Kroc had insisted on continuing expansion whereas Sonneborn was conservative with the view that the country was heading into a recession and put a stop on constructing new stores. Kroc took his title afterwards.

Other business interests

After leaving McDonald's, Sonneborn continued to be involved in the business world through the stock market, capital investments, and banking. He and his wife Aloyis founded several philanthropic foundations.

In popular culture

In the 2016 film ''

The Founder ''The Founder'' is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. Starring Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, the film portrays the story of his creation of the McDonald's fast-food rest ...

'', Sonneborn was portrayed by actor B. J. Novak, who spoke the famous line "You're not in the burger business; you're in the real estate business."Archived a
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References

External links